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Netflix Looks at 'Consumer-Friendly Ways' to Limit Password Sharing

By Kenneth Kwok
on Tue, 10/22/2019 - 07:21

From PC Mag: Earlier this month, Netflix reported its third quarter results for 2019 and they make for positive reading. Revenue is up, income doubled, and millions more people subscribed to the service. However, Netflix is a rapidly maturing service and it will become increasingly challenging to continue growing, so the problem of password sharing has been raised.

As MobileSyrup reports, in a video interview regarding those Q3 earnings, Netflix CFO Spencer Neumann was asked if the "mature growth projectory" of Netflix in the US meant password sharing/stealing is something the service intends to address. Neumann responds by stating, "We continue to monitor it ... we'll see those consumer-friendly ways to push on the edges of that ... we have no big plans to announce at this time in terms of doing something differently there."

Clearly Netflix knows that some subscribers share their passwords with others who should really be paying for their own access. However, for now it has no intention of rocking the boat, upsetting subscribers, and encouraging any negative press that would inevitably accompany a clamp down on password sharing.

Netflix accounts do have built-in limits, but the limit comes in the form of how many simultaneous streams are allowed. For now and the foreseeable future, you can login to Netflix on as many devices as you want.

In stark contrast to Netflix's relaxed attitude to sharing, Spotify is clamping down on the practice as its Premium Family Plan now requires location sharing. Also, if you are caught blocking ads on the free account, Spotify will suspend or even terminate your account.